THE GREY CAT’S HOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 21 January 1928, Page 16

THE GREY CAT’S HOUR.

There came a little whimpering cry out of the dark night. Lesbia listened. Through the'driving wind and law and tlie tapping of the broken window blind it sounded again. v-die padded to the door, a shapeless little figure in a blue dressing-gown, her dark hair falling untidily rounu lier ears, her face p.nk and moist, from sitting too close to the fire. She opened the door and the wind sprang in, and there was a vision of long white rain dropping in the light like"' a beadstring curtain. •‘Fluffy! Fluffy!’’ cal.ed Lesbia in her soft, urgent voice. The man writing at the table looked up impatiently. ‘ Still worrying about that damned cat,” he said irritably. ‘‘Wherever is lie is she won’t come wandering home in the rain. Cat’s can look after themselves.” ‘‘Hut. she has never gone away before,” said Lesb.a. ‘‘Listen. Jeff!” She stood peering out, her hand curled round her ear. ‘‘The squeaking of n bough,” said Hallett. “Shut the door, there’s a dear.”

There was The rustling of papers on the table as. she stood there with the wind blowing in. A quiver ran through the girl as she stood uncertainly with her hand on the door-handle. ‘T couidn’t bear it,” she whispered. •*' . th nk of her wandering out in the cold rain all night, perhaps with a trap on her foot.” »* ith shaking finger's she Jit a match and a flame soared up from a candle on the sideboard.

Hallett sprang to his feet. He was a short, well-knit man with a. h'.gh, clever iorehead, and a fair, square face a mixture of the dreaming scholar and the man of act on. He had the ingenuous blue eyes of a child. “You’re not going out in this weather, Lesbia,’ he said sharply. “Slippers on your feet. Good God! I'll have you in'bed with pneumonia tomorrow. That will he nice for me—the middle of the week with my articles to anish, and ail those oranges to lie picked.” Lesbia smiled. There was something hard and bitterly understanding in hei smile. She perceived that if she caught cold the tragedy would be his discomfort not hers.

Her smiling s.lence provoked Hallett, as it invariably did. Soft and indo.ent and pliable, she looked, standing there in her soft blue dressinggown, but he knew how deceptive her exterior was.

“You’ll not go out,” lie muttered angrily "You foolish women w.,th your cats! Here, give me the cancke and I’ll go.” She watched his slender beautiful lingers curve round the flame as he thrust out into the night with beiit head. She heard his sharp impatient voice calling at quick intervals neai the hoiitse “Fluffy! Fluffy ! Fluffy.” He came in with a rush, sighed .with relief, and ’blew out the candle “Not there,” he said. “What a night!” “Did you look in the washouse Y” she whispered. He avoided the eager grey inqu.ry of her eyes. The was 'right down at the bottom of the yard. Damn these women. “Yes,” lie lied.

• Lesbia sat looking into the lire, her ehin in her hands curved up like ihe chalice of a white li.v. .She loved the little grey cat. Not even a Persian — just a common garden cat, with black stripes 'like a tiger and a long tail that swung delightfully from side to side. But she liked to ieel its so.t paws opening and shutting under her chin, its cold little nose thrusting against her cheek in a way that made Jeff abusive. It was something to Jove, anyhow, and there was not enough to love heie. She was overflowing with rich, warm love, and it had to be poured out somewhere. . There was Jell oi course, but he didn’t want it all. it got between him and his- work, and made h.m uncomfortable. Now he was tired of her snuggling up to him and putting her soft arms round his neck and whispering. ‘•Tell me \ou love me as I love you. Tell me, tell me, teh me!’’ Ana nothing must he allowed to inter.ere with Jed’s work when he was in the mood for it. They had left Melbourne and come up north to grow oranges and apricots on an irrigated fru.t block, because of that. There would be fewer distractions here, and, besides the hard, healthy work to re done in the daitime would be spiendiu for him physically, as well as bringing in a litt.e steady money, which they wanted badly. It had meant leaving a jolly circle of fr. ends, certainly—Jcif s scholarly newspaper-talking old men, with corrugated foreheads and cultr.rec. voices; her own lively lot that she had known in the days when she had i een a careless gallery student, with more joic de vivre than ambition ,Je.i’s work was not ordinary slapdash journalism, she knew. it hat! the coc. white beauty o: chiselled marble, fit wrote bi-weekly articles for a leading newspaper, and was at wont on a hooi. on ancient Home. J.esbia stirred, and the lender iion> rattled. She knew that if she lookct up she would see Jett’s face twisted into an expression of pain. A wave o revolt flooded her. She couldn’t keep still. Why should she become a mere automaton, under Jeff’s prec so touch — she who was full of bursting enthusiasms, like a noisy child? She who went into loud i apt iires over the oranges hanging among the dark leaves like ( hinese lanterns, the new wiie.oss set installed bv their nearest nejgbjoKro, the Moores; the gov chintzes that hung tantnlisiugly in Hie windows of the township store p •• Warm-hearted and vivacious,” he had railed her at fiist. He had laughed at her because she was untidy, picked up scattered papers from the floor, and thought it amusing because she left money lying around, lie had not chide I her because she had padded about in sippers and let her hear grow too long on her nee!:. He had loved her lie-aus? .■•'he was T.eshia Just a child—l esbia.

She stole a g’ance at him now as he sat there absorbed. He was rot even cons-ions of her presence. Ho had not. really worried about the cat. It came s icldenly to her —something that she had not dared to think before. He was so I i.sh and cruel. Selfish and cruel! It had taken the incident of the cat to hr rig the truth home. She knew it now, hut she must keep it in. She must never say those words to him—selfish and cruel. If she did some terrible catastrophe would follow. The hour was significant now. She

thought of Fluffy wandering somewhere in the rain with her waving tail wet and draggled. Tears ran slowly down her cheexs. Jeff did not notice them as he kissed her good-nigut hastily, with one f.nger marking a place in the book.

She went into the bedroom and undressed, crying with a terriole leeling of desolation. She seemed to have reached some point thac she had never reached before. i lie hour claimed her as its victim, it was the hour of «he grey cat! .Next morning Jeff left earlier than usual to walk ;.nto the town. A long walk, only lie could be practically certain or a lift on the way. _ Lesbia fed the fowls out o: a blue basin, and went down to the washhouse to see if there were any eggs. The fowls might ‘be pardoned ior thinking the washhouse a mere storing shed.

A piteous mew greeted her as she stooped. The grey cat lay with a swollen paw caught in a cruel,' rusty trap. it was breath.ng quickly, and its eyes bad a dry, hard look about them.

“Oh, God, God, God, how could you;-'” moaned Lesbia, gritting her teeth.

She stepped on the rusty iron with a sure iittle .root, and sobbed when the cat snarled and hissed. The subterranean growl of pain continued as she carried it in her a.ms to the house and la d it n.v the stove.

it age ana Irate were alive within her. All Fluhy had laid in agony. Ji was ,Jen’s lault. He had not looked in the washhouse. He had not cared! He came in at the middle of the day, brisk and cheerful, surprised at the swollen look or her eyes as she regard'd from across the table which she had set unt.dily, throwing the cutlery down anyhow. ohe watched him straighten a fork methodically beiore she spoke. “You're selfish and cruel, ’ she said, intensely, and it seemed to Her that she had waited all her life to say just tnnt. .-he watched the look or perplexity on his square face change to annoy am e. “You didn’t look out an tne washhouse. Y'ou lied to me. The cat was the.e all night, her leg trapped . ’ 1 There was contrition in the swift .movement with which he bent down o.er tne basket by the stove. •mb, poor pussy, poor pussy, ’ he said in that voice that could be very tender. “Who’d have guessed .t i what a damned shame. I’m worry, Lesbia.” He stood up again, feeling that he had run hara into the wall of her mysterious 'silence. He fe.t baffled. Tneie was something tense in Lesbia’s attitude —something away and beyond the L.ttle a. fair of the moment. The at was only incidental. He struggled against a sense of helplessness. “You're so dramatic,” he burst out impatiently. “Y’ou make melodrama out of the smallest thing. Tie reasonable. .1 did not lay the confounded trap that ” “It’s • not only that!” Lesbia’s voice was a qu: et sing-song. “it’s every other thing; but the culminating point lias come now. Y’ou are selfish and cruel. You have no thought of anyone but yourse'.f. You aie completely immersed in your own self-im-portance. It might have been me dragg ng out in the rain instead of the cat. .it wouldn’t have mattered so long as you had your own particular chair by the lire, your right pipe, and the quiet ne.essar.v tor your work. I teli you, J hate you! This afternoon I am going into the township to send a wire. Yes, 111 walk in. I’m going to leave you, Jeff—go back to Auntie May and the boy's, and my posters. I have a little money.’ “For God’s sake Lesb.a ”

‘‘What do th© aincient glories 01 Greek and Rome matter beside my soul p” ' went on Lesbia, passionately. “I’m glad they’ve all crumbled to dust.”

He looked down at the cat lying with its chin in a crook of its paw. He felt a sudden hatred of the animal, it had led up to this. “Better kill it,” lie said, savagely, to see her wince, and he stoo l wondering how much she meant of what she had said. All that fermenting in her head of a night., while lie had isat with deep content, his

mind roving among the glor.es of the pwst, his fingers twined lovingly about lus pen. He shifted uncomfortably, hoping that there was not goin' l : to be any length}' “dust-up.” It was his night ior finish.ng his article. Old man Dicker, driving into the township the mail at 11 o’clock, always picked the manuscript up on his way in, and posted it It was a proud boast of Hallett's that he had never m. ssed yet. And he was not going to miss now.

“Don’t he silly, my dear,” *e miicl mildly. “I’m going across to Moore’s to see about that p’ough. I may be back a little late.”

It was dusk when he got hack again. There was no light in the house. Ho lelt a burning resentment. \<> light, no fire, and he would have to work at top speed as it was to got h:s article finished. Ifoijits gnawed at him, as be started a fire in the recl-ochred fireplace, hut a look at the eat in its has.cei reassured him. She would not have gone and left that.. Ho began to write deliberately, shuttine the thought of Lesbia out of his mind She would he back soon. The wnd tore at the house. Roughs rasped against the roof, ami heavy slants of rain beat against the pane. “I ike last night,” murmured Jeff, and looked round for the eat. But the ■•at was gone! He remembered now that he hnc! beard something dragging across the Moor to the outside door; hut he had forgot ten immediately. Comprehension came to him. The grey cat had gone to find Lesbia. He clung to the thought. fantastic though it was. Good God! 'rhe two of them! Horrible! He thought o; the eat hopping round on three logs. He lit the lantern and went out. The rain was coming down in sheets. There was something evil in the night. His search began . to la e a scmbolical significance It was ’'d the grey eat that he was looking for- it. was the lost- Lesbia—the Los" bin who would put her arms round his neelc and whisper softly, “Tell me: tell me.’* “Fluffy! Fluffy!” he called, lurchiiv down He puddily road. He found the creature cowering against a gum with dark, threshing h-anrhes lifted it- in his arms, and trudged back. Without removing his enonirg clothes he attended to the hurt paw. He would not get hits article now —hut he-had found the eat And Lesbia? •

He looked to see her .standing against the door, her hat dripping.

“I drove back with the Carters,” she said, breathlessly. “We wore bogged. I had to walk most of the nay. f saw the lantern bobbing outside. What ” “J went out to find the cat She was looking for you,” said Rallett. 'lhev stared at each other. “Your article?” faltered T.eshia. “1 left it,” he said. “It—it doesn’t seem to matter—now.”

She knelt by the fire, thrusting out her hands. “1 didn’t send that wire,” die said. “I didn’t know what to

She -‘ el l ihis nrnys -Round her .ms she knelt, with her face averted. “Earing,” said Ha I !ott. isiowlv. “There’ll an hour that must come to ■it o ' i s - the hour when we must make a careful revision and look facts s uare y in the face That hour has one no v. Let. us talk without bitterness. Wheie f have fa vied —set me if.rht.” Thev crouched hv the fire contented. Iv. “I was wrong.” said Jeff, quietly. “No. it was me,” said Lesbia. with' svi f t 'mpetuousity. her eyes wet. : “Perhaps you were,” admitted JefF. ■ with sly mischief. And the grey cat hid n smiling yawn with its unhurt paw.